Same-sex marriage? Same partisan divide

Democrats said the time is now to legalize same-sex marriage, Republicans replied not while the state’s budget crisis hangs over the Legislature’s head, during the Associated Press Legislative Preview in Olympia on Thursday.

“This is the right time to move forward with marriage equality,” said State Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, Senate Majority.

Brown argued that lawmakers will have time, in the upcoming two month session, to work on marriage equality. And Gov. Chris Gregoire pooh-poohed the argument that the Legislature doesn’t have time.

Gregoire

“To those who say we don’t have the time, what will history say when we say, ‘Sorry, we had a budget to pass, so we continued to discriminate’,” the governor argued. “That answer does not work. This is our test. This is what leadership is about. Now is our time.”

But Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt responded: “This is not the session for social reforms. The last thing we need to do is be down here in turmoil over social issues.”

Hewitt said that State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who chairs the Senate Ways & Means Committee, “is vested in this personally.” Murray is gay and a chief architect of marriage equality legislation.

Gregoire put the issue on the table — forcefully — at a Wednesday news conference, defining same-sex marriage as a civil rights issue. She evoking past actions to halt discrimination against racial minorities, women, immigrants and the state’s disabled.

Facing a big budget shortfall, the Legislature punted during a December special session, passing some cuts but leaving the heavy lifting until its regular session in January.

Gregoire has outlined an oft-draconian package of possible cuts, including release of prisoners and ending the state’s Basic Health Plan. Shortening the school year has also been on the table.

House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, pressed what the AP called Republicans’ “reform before revenue” emphasis, saying the GOP may offer the alternative of slot machines in card rooms to bring dollars into state coffers.

The governor has also proposed a temporary, three-year increase of a half-cent in the state sales tax. The issue would need to be put to a statewide vote.

In 1983, with the state in the midst of another recession, Washington’s last Republican governor — John Spellman — signed a 1.1 cent increase in the sales tax. The tax hike was passed by a Legislature in which Republicans controlled the State Senate and Democrats the state House of Representatives.